Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3829

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Experts call for regulation of baby gender tests
ABC Action News 2006 Feb 20
http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2006/02/060220babyfolo.shtml

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:

“ For $275, the test claims it can tell you the sex of your fetus five weeks after conception with a 99.9-percent accuracy rate. “

This claim is nonsense, but ordinary people cannot be expected to know this, and there should be regulations in place protencting the public from this sort of scam.

Full text:

Experts call for regulation of baby gender tests
an ABC Action News report 02/20/06
related story: Baby gender test leads to great concern for some mothers-to-be (2/20/06)

TAMPA – Danielle Hardy wanted to know the sex of her unborn baby earlier than ultrasound could show it, so she bought Acu-Gen’s Baby Gender Mentor test online.

For $275, the test claims it can tell you the sex of your fetus five weeks after conception with a 99.9-percent accuracy rate.

Danielle’s gender test said she was having a boy. But the problem is, repeated ultrasounds — seven of them, in fact — showed a girl, and they proved to be right.

“You just want the best for them, so you really want to know exactly what’s going on with this test. That’s why I can’t just shrug my shoulders and say it’s a sham, we don’t know what it is,” she offered.

Danielle is one of more than a dozen women who filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission claiming the gender tests were wrong. Many accuse the company of not honoring the money-back guarantee.

So who regulates at-home tests like the baby gender mentor? Action News discovered that no one does.

The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the test, because they consider it a ‘home brew’ test.

Another government agency regulates clinical laboratories, but does not consider this a medical test and, like the FDA, isn’t regulating Acu-Gen’s lab at all.

But ask Tampa resident Erin Rivera and she’ll tell you Acu-Gen’s president Chang Wang gave her a medical diagnosis. Erin sent in her blood sample, and the gender was right, but then she got a disturbing call.

“He said, ‘Well I would recommend you calling your doctor and getting some genetic tests done because we detected a high amount of this [material] in your specimen,’ “ she recalled.

That high amount of genetic material could indicate chromosomal abnormalities with her baby.

Dr. Kathy Hudson, a geneticist with Johns Hopkins University, says the government needs more oversight of products like the baby gender test.

“Pregnant women are getting information they didn’t ask for and we have no assurance that those test results are accurate,” she said. “Both healthcare providers and the public are going to have to trust and have high confidence in the quality of those tests.”

TAKE ACTION YOURSELF

There are several online resources where you can learn more about the Baby Gender Mentor test.
Baby Gender Mentor site
Info on class-action lawsuit
Discussion boards about prenatal tests
Despite having no published data to back up the accuracy of his test, Chang Wang stands by his work.

“We don’t mistakes. Period,” he told Action News. But clients say Wang has made mistakes, and several law enforcement agencies are taking note. The Illinois attorney general is investigating consumer fraud allegations against Acu-Gen, and the state of New York says Acu-Gen needs to file for a proper permit or stop taking samples from their residents.

Coming up Monday night at 11, how hundreds of Acu-Gen’s clients are lining up to take Wang to court.